Confession time, I have a little problem with sweet potatoes. It’s not so much a problem as I am just very cautious around it. Something about a potato being that sweet and the mushy texture when it’s cooked. Personally, I would climb over a mountain to get to some roasted sweet potatoes or sweet potato fries, but when it comes to sweet potato casseroles, I can’t handle the sweetness without it being a dessert. I’ll take sweet potato cheesecake and pie any day. I think it’s then sweet potato dishes that try to walk the fine line between being a dinner and a dessert. I prefer them in dessert.

My husband and son on the other hand, love baked sweet potatoes, sweet potato casseroles and all such classic things. As a matter or fact, sweet potato casserole is my husband’s favorite side dish at the Thanksgiving dinner. You will never find it on my plate but he would just take a spoon and the pan it was made it and go to town. This is exactly what inspired this cake for me. I wanted to make this favorite side dish in a cake form. Win, win! He gets the casserole and I get sweet potato dessert.

I found a nice recipe for a sweet potato cake from Bunny’s Warm Oven and it looked so, so good that I used it for this cake base. Cake came out really nice. It was soft, moist and almost gooey, especially with the sweet butter pecan sauce all over. I made it into a poke cake too, so that the sauce can sip into the cake better. This cake is very simple to make and it will be an awesome addition to a holiday menu.

I also recommend serving this cake warm or at room temperature. You should definitely refrigerate the leftover and just warm it up for yourself later, but it is best warm. When this cake gets cold, butter sauce solidifies and so do marshmallows. Warming it up, makes the cake nice and gooey again.

Ingredients

2cupscooked sweet potatoes1 large that's a little less than a lb (about .9 lb)

1 1/2cupswhole milk

2eggsroom temperature

2tspvanilla

1/2cupunsalted buttermelted

3cupsflour

1/2tspnutmeg

1/4tspsalt

3/4cupwhite granulated sugar

4tspbaking powder

Sauce:

1/2cupsalted butter

1/4cupmaple syrup

1/2cupwhite granulated sugar

1/4cupbrown sugar

1 1/2cupschopped pecans

Topping:

10.5ozbag mini marshmallows

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 baking dish. (I baked my sweet potato the day before to save time.)

In a large bowl, add cooked sweet potato and mash it.

Add eggs, sugar, vanilla and melted butter, beat until combined.

Add milk and beat until all incorporated.

Add nutmeg and salt and sift in flour and baking powder, beat on low until just incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared baking dish and spread it evenly. Try to get it as even as possible so it bakes evenly.

Bake for 35-40 minutes. Take out and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Prepare the butter sauce. In a sauce pot, melt butter and add both sugars and maple syrup. Cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring slowly. Add chopped pecans, mix and cook for another minute.

Poke small holes on top of the cake and evenly pour the sauce over the cake. Spread it over the entire cake.

Spread marshmallows over the top evenly and put it back in the oven for about 3 minutes. Then turn on the broiler and let marshmallows toast for a few seconds. Watch it closely or they will burn.

You can serve the cake right away or when it cools to room temperature.

Recipe Notes

Recipe from Lyuba @ willcookforsmiles.com All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to share this recipe, please simply link back to this post for the recipe. Thank you.

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